In response to NPR’s Monkey See article The Incredible Shrinking Liz, I was astounded to see that Linda Holmes has no idea what she’s talking about. Liz Lemon from NBC’s 30 Rock has definitely grown as a character, perhaps not in the most efficient and straight forward way, but she has let go of many daily stressors that have held her back from achieving her own happiness.

Holmes accuses Lemon of turning into a little girl who constantly seeks Jack’s approval—not because she sees him as a father figure, but because they are friends. However, in the specified episode that Holmes says “[Liz] weasled her way back to Criss in what she believed was secrecy (don’t let dad find out!),” which is completely untrue. Though Liz was at first giving in to Jack’s opinion, she goes back to Criss because she is happier with him, and then Jack too sees that Criss makes Liz happy, and thus gives him ‘probationary approval’.

Like in Season 1, Episode 8 “The Break-up,” where Jack found positive attributes in Dennis (Liz’s first boyfriend in the series), he too finds positive elements in Criss. However, giving him ‘probationary approval’ also shows that Jack has grown wiser when it comes to aiding Liz’s love life.

Most of the characters on the show have grown, most notably Kenneth who now wishes to be respected as a human being and not just an ‘albino slave monkey’ by leaving the Page program in pursuit of a better job in the company. The same goes for Paul and Jenna, who are now in the process of sexual soul-searching before they settle in as a normal couple—which admittedly is a big step for her character.

So maybe Linda Holmes was just lamenting about the characters on 30 Rock because she too is a Lemon, just wanting to have it all, trying to take leaps and bounds in self-improvemnt only to fall flat on her face. 

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